Recently, I was engaged in a conversation on Twitter with someone who couldn’t understand the guidelines that many forums, including mine, have regarding advertising or self promotion. Sue (@SueOnTheWeb) was involved in the conversation, too, as we were both explaining why forums were a tad different from other forms of social media, like microblogging (Twitter), traditional social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook) and so on. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: forums are a different beast.

Different forms of social media require different strategies, different patterns, different levels of engagement, different social norms. Forums are as much if not more diverse, when it comes to this, than any other form of this thing we call social media, which may be more like online community.

I apologize. I really didn’t plan to not post anything here for over a month. I guess one never really plans that sort of thing. But, everything just sorted of piled onto me at once. I attended three conferences in three weeks in three different states. IZEAFest, Blog World & New Media Expo and Social Media Business Forum. And there was plenty of preparation, packing and unpacking. And they all went well, which was awesome. Expect recaps for the last two at some point in December.

Being away so much, messages just piled up. E-mail messages, Bloglines subscriptions, forum posts and other things. Almost three weeks worth in some cases. In catching up with that, I just never found time to blog. And then I got sick. And then I had another trip tied to my birthday. And then we have Thanksgiving. And then I’ve been contemplating what 2010 holds for me. It just never ends. I apologize for the lack of new posts here. I can’t say I’ve had a lack of ideas, which I’ve been coming up with and noting for future posts.

Now, it is my hope that things will return to normal. It’s good to be back. Thank you for your patience.